Jabhat Fateh al-Sham released a statement saying they've carried out a Special Operation to free a German journalist Janina Findeisen from an armed group. Janina Findeisen was kidnapped almost a year ago in Syria by a group of armed men. The armed men had used JFS's name to demand a ransom. JFS had issued a statement on 1/12/2015 denying their involvement and almost a month ago they started an investigation on her whereabouts and after having received information, they raided a prison where she was held in and had freed the journalist and had arrested most of the group members that were involved in her kidnapping.

State Department Spokesperson John Kirby says that if a peace deal falls through regarding Syria that: "Extremist groups will continue to exploit the vacuums that are there in Syria to expand their operations, which could include attacks against Russian interests, perhaps even Russian cities. Russia will continue to send people home in body bags, and will continue to lose resources, perhaps even aircraft.”